One Old Man and Another
by Kitty O
Summary: There's something to be said for keeping secrets, and then there's something to be said for keeping them temporarily - after all, the future generations, us, will want to know. None of my stories are slash. Written when I realized Geoffrey was real person


**NOTE:**

Apparently Geoffrey of Monmouth is a real person. Really. You can look him up on wikipedia! Or however else you care to find it. He was actually attributed as 'major establisher' of the 'canon' of Arthurian myths. He wrote a book which name translates to '_The Prophecies of Merlin'_ (actually, he changed it to that from the name _Myrddin_) and a book called _History of the Kings of Britain_ (again, translation), though it was mostly fiction. In other words, we owe the fat librarian the basic knowledge that this show is built off of! I suddenly like him even more. So I wrote this. And thanks to **Mrs. Bonner**, who told me he was real in the first place.

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**One Old Man and Another**

**by Kitty O**

Geoffrey looked up when he heard footsteps in his library, giving his parchment one last stroke with his pen and then placing it back in its inkwell.

"Gaius," he greeted his friend jovially. "How are you?"

Gaius smiled at him, his old craggy face lighting up. "I'm fine. Getting rather old, you know, but that can't be helped. Just came to pick up a book." He stood over Geoffrey's desk, leaning on it as he had done for so many years, since they were both much younger.

Geoffrey laughed slightly because Gaius seemed to expect it. Gaius peered down at Geoffrey's writings, asking, "What is that, Geoffrey?"

Geoffrey looked down. "Just… a sort of journal."

"Journal?"

Geoffrey nodded. "About what's been happening around the castle; it's always something, you know. It's like a story, sometimes." He sighed rather dreamily, causing Gaius to smile again.

"It is, indeed. May I see?"

Geoffrey shrugged, patting the still-slightly wet writing and getting ink on his hand. "It's nothing you don't already know. I'm sure Merlin tells you everything that goes on. Me, I just know it because I'm observant, and I get around." He indicated his stomach, round face breaking out into a warm smile. "Even if it doesn't look like it."

"I want to see your writings… From one old man to another?"

Chortling, he agreed, "From one old man to another." Geoffrey picked up the parchment carefully, trying not to get the ink from his hands on the edges, and blew it dry, liking the dry sound of air against the parchment. That was why he worked in the library, after all.

Handing it over to Gaius, the librarian remarked, "But don't expect it to be anything earth-shattering."

Gaius smiled and took it in his gnarled old hands. He read it, his eyes flickering over the parchment. As he read it, his smile faded. His face grew still and solemn. And Geoffrey watched him expectantly, waiting for him to pick through the convoluted language that they were both so used to seeing.

_**I, Geoffrey of Monmouth, am today inscribing the Situation such as happened at the Castle of Camelot under the reign of King Uther Pendragon, on the Dates written above. I shall endeavor to describe accurately the Circumstances which I saw only partly for Myself, heard partly from Others, and partly deduced from my own Power, telling for Future Generations how the Young Warlock, Merlin of Ealdor, again saved Prince Arthur Pendragon (the First, as there are No More as of Now), and his Paramour, the Servant Guinevere, without being detected, as the Use of Sorcery and Magic was Illegal on those Aforementioned Dates and continues to be as I record this…**_

Gaius couldn't go any further. He put down the parchment on the desk, his face white with alarm, and stared at his old friend.

Geoffrey met his gaze evenly.

"You… you…"

Geoffrey nodded, his eyes beginning to twinkle in his weather-beaten face. "I wrote that, yes. I have been writing them for more than a year."

Gaius couldn't believe it. Merlin's secret. Arthur and Gwen's secret. Did they really all hang in the balance, depend on the secretiveness of the quiet old librarian with a bad leg and big gut?

Geoffrey winked, taking back the words and holding them in his leathery hands. "I told you it would be nothing new to you. But don't tell anyone. Someday people will know I write these, of course; that's what writing is about. Making legends, making things immortal. But for know… I'd like to keep it a secret, just for us old men."

Gaius met his eyes suspiciously but said nothing.

"After all, no one's interested in my writings _now. _I'll have to wait until all of this – and probably me and you – are long forgotten, and this is news." These poetic words were spoken in the same no-nonsense tone that everyone in the castle had come to expect from Geoffrey.

Gaius found the voice that had been surprised out of him. "Between one old man and another, you mean."

His face broke out into a grin that made him look younger. "Yes. Between one old man and another. Now, Gaius, I believe you were looking for a book?"

Gaius limped off in the direction that Geoffrey of Monmouth pointed, still a little flabbergasted, but quickly recovering. It made sense, in a way, that Geoffrey should know. Just because he liked to read didn't mean that his head was always in the clouds. If Gaius noticed, Geoffrey could too.

There was no reason to worry, he realized as he thumbed through the volume that he had been in search of. It was _good_ that posterity would know all the heroic tales. And Geoffrey could be depended on to keep this under wraps. It wouldn't be brought up again that Merlin could use magic, that Arthur and Gwen were in love.

But it would always be there. Every day, when Geoffrey and Gaius saw their friend, each would know. They would know that the other knew, and when they nodded at each other kindly, it would be with that in mind. But that was okay; that was the way of things. Old men have many secrets, no matter where they are, for that is the way of things. The wise keep the undisclosed knowledge that no one else can be bothered to notice. They have secrets. This was just another one, shared between two friendly old-timers, never spoken but mutually understood.

And Gaius continued to advise Merlin, and Geoffrey continued to write it all down for the future.

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_A/N: Review, please. I know it isn't terribly exciting... But I like it. _


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